Christopher Staats Goes From A Break To A WSOP Breakthrough

Christopher Staats has live tournament results spanning back to 2009. He had accumulated over $2 million in earnings across hundreds of in-the-money finishes over more than a decade of chasing poker glory. After the 2024 World Series of Poker, though, the Oklahoma native recently decided to take a step back from the game for a while.

“I left here last summer (after) traveling 15 years, took a break, got a job in a warehouse, waking up at 3:30 a.m. for six months and I just needed to check out,” Staats told PokerNews live reporters. “I don’t think people understand how much putting into this game involves traveling away from your family and your kids to get at the highest level. You sacrifice a lot.”

After some time away from the felt, Staats decided to come back out for this year’s WSOP at the Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas, and promptly ripped off the biggest win of his career.  Staats outlasted a field of 2,354 entries in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-max event, earning his second gold bracelet and the top prize of $414,950.

This topped his previous highest payday of $254,580, which he earned for a third-place showing in the 2018 WSOP $1,111 Little One For One Drop. With this latest victory, he is now approaching $2.5 million in lifetime cashes. His previous bracelet also came in a six-max event, with his topping the 111-entry field in the 2022 WSOP Online $3,200 buy-in six-handed tournament to win $111,609.

Setting The Stage

The turnout for this event was down just over seven percent from the 2,526 total posted in 2024. Still, with multiple thousands of entries, the prize pool swelled to $3,124,935 by the time registration closed. The top 354 finishers made the money, with six-figure payouts for the final five.

Plenty of highly-accomplished players were still in contention when the field had been narrowed to just a handful of tables. Among those who ran deep were bracelet winners Arnaud Enselme (36th), Brad Gafford (35th), David Funkhouser (25th), and Tristan Wade (17th). Belgian tournament star Thomas Boivin (12th) and Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville champion James Leonard (11th) also came close to making the final table.

Damarjai Davenport was well out in front of the pack when the last seven combined onto a single table, with Staats towards the bottom of the middle of the pack at the time. Eshaan Bhalla, known to high-stakes cash game stream fans as ‘Brownballa,’ scored the first knockout. His A-J outraced the pocket eighths of Aaron Overton (7th – $58,249) to make this final table official. Check out a replay of the hand from PokerGO’s exclusive live broadcast.

Aaron Overton out in seventh place from the @WSOP $1,500 6-Max NL Hold’em.

Streaming now on https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG. pic.twitter.com/BdpR0Kp4MD

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 5, 2025

Davenport then picked up pocket kings against the pocket sevens of Sweden’s Oscar Johansson (6th – $77,688) to further thin the field. Two-time bracelet winner David Jackson overtook the chip lead during five-handed play, winning a big pot with a flush against Davenport to swap positions at the table. Staats found a crucial double-up soon after that, holding with A-10 against the A-6 of Shundan Xiao, who finished 28th in last year’s WSOP main event for $300,000.

Bhalla bowed out in fourth place when his A♦K♠ was outdrawn by the K♥Q♥ of Jackson, who flopped a flush draw but rivered a pair of queens to win the pot. Bhalla walked away with $104,858 for his fifth-place showing.

Closing Out The Win

Staats doubled up again, this time through Davenport to leave him short. Davenport was soon sent packing when his multi-street bluff attempt was picked off by Jackson. The 2024 WSOP $10,000 mystery bounty event runner-up earned $143,206 for this latest final-table performance. That pushed his career earnings past $920,000.

David Jackson!

The @ WSOP is streaming now on https://t.co/2RQh5ROjQG. pic.twitter.com/P53uocbDr0

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 5, 2025

Jackson took a bit of a hit when he lost a race with K-10 suited against the pocket eights of Staats, but then won the next all-in with J♥9♥ against the A♣8♦ of Xiao, rivering queens full of jacks to set up a heads-up clash with Staats. Xiao earned $197,869 for her podium finish in this event.

Jackson held better than a 3:1 chip advantage to start, but Staats was able to find a quick double when his flopped two pair improved to a full house against Jackson’s flopped flush.

Staats then won a big flip with 10♥10♦ against K♠Q♣ to take a 2:1 lead of his own. In the final hand, Jackson min-raised to 1,000,000 on the button with J♣6♣ and Staats defended his big blind with 9♦7♠. The flop came down J♠7♥7♣ and Staats checked his trip sevens. Jackson bet 600,000 with jacks and sevens, only to be faced with a check-raise to 1,900,000 from Staats. Jackson called and the 10♠ hit the turn. Staats bet 3,600,000 and Jackson called. The 5♦ completed the board and Staats moved all-in for more than 14 million. Jackson took a while to mull things over before making the call to finish second for $276,562. The Jacksonville, Florida native now has $5.4 million in lifetime scores under his belt.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Rachel Kay Winter.